640 to 710 Extensive Debrief

Hi!

I don't really participate in Internet forums often but today, I received my GMAT score of 710. Although I worked hard for it, I know that I would not have achieved my score if it weren't for the GMAT Club. This is my way of giving back to this wonderful community and through this debrief, I hope to contribute to your preparation and help you (at least a bit) reach your GMAT goals.

Brief Background:
I'm a 27 year male, graduated with honors in a top university in the Philippines. I have 3 years work experience in general management in a family business of 300+ employees. I decided to go for an MBA to work on the skills that I feel aren't being developed in the company and I plan to apply to INSEAD, CBS, and Kellogg for their 1 year programs. The schools are pretty competitive so a GMAT score around 700 was my target. To be honest, my realistic goal was around 670-690 because as you can see below, I never got a score higher than 690 in any of my practice tests. Moreover, I was so weak with Quant and I never excelled in standardized tests. I would've jumped for joy with just a 680. Got a 640 during my first attempt then I decided to take it again and got 710. Wthout further adieu, this is my GMAT experience.

Test Scores
1st GMAT 640 Q42 V36 AWA4 IR6 (December 2014)
1st GMAT Practice CATs:
Manhattan Prep 640
GMAT Prep 650, 640
Kaplan 650, 640, 630

2nd GMAT 710 Q49 V38 AWA6 IR2 (April 2015)
2nd GMAT Practice CAT:
GMAT Prep 690, 680
Manhattan Prep 670, 690
Kaplan 690
GMAT Club Test scores 640
I mainly took the Quant Test and my scores ranged from 40-50
Only took the Verbal once, got a 28

First GMAT:
- When I first studied for the GMAT, I took the wrong approach and looking back, I committed so many studying mistakes. I simply bought GMAT books, read them, and took practice tests. I the used OG2013, Official Verbal and Quant Review 2015, Kaplan GMAT Premier 2015, and Manhattan Guides. I read all of them but over long period of time. I ended up forgetting what I learned in one book, relearning the lessons, and forgetting them again. It was a complete waste of time and effort.
- My notes were disorganized. I wrote them on 3 different pad papers and I had to switch between notes to look for what I wrote.
- On top of that, I did little analysis on the mistakes that I made and basically just read how to solve the answers then quickly moved on. I wasted my time because I did not learn from the errors and quickly forgot the correct method of answering. I found myself making the same mistakes over and over and it translated to my first GMAT test.
- I answered practice tests and quizzes randomly and with no plan and did not strengthen the areas that I should have strengthened. Despite taking so many CATs, I did not improve dramatically because I wasn't addressing my weaknesses.
- My study schedule was inconsistent. I did not practice every day and this led me to forget some lessons that I previously learned. Again, kept on making the same mistakes.
- I also felt lost with the myriad resources available online. I didn't know where to begin or how approach my studies. I was very disorganized.
- I also paid for different tutorial services online and in my country and ended up wasting money. AHEAD, the tutorial service in the Philippines, was basic and mainly taught high school and grade school students. My AHEAD tutor had no plan on how to tackle the GMAT and did not have any experience with the test. I ended up wasting ~500 dollars on services that I could have gotten in GMAT Club for free.
- Prior to the test, it was good that I visited the test center to familiarize myself with the test environment. Despite this, my nerves got the best of me during the exam and I guessed sooo many quant questions that I finished the section with 3 minutes left. i had poor time management in the test because of the butterflies.
- Overall, I had no study plan, was not organized, nor focused. I wasted so much time and I hope you do not make the same mistake. Looking back, those were 3 months of my life that could have been put to good use if I had just planned properly.

Second GMAT Test:
- After seeing a 640 on the test screen, I knew that I deserved it but I could have done better. I decided to take the test again making sure that I adopted the right approach and habits.

What I did right:

DEVELOPED A STUDY PLAN AND COMMITTED TO IT
- Even before I opened a book, I thoroughly researched and created a study plan. One good thing about the my 1st GMAT experience is that I then knew which area I should really focus on - Quantitative. It also helped that I attended seminars of the business schools that I plan to apply to and the marketing officer of INSEAD told me to just focus on Quant because my initial score of 640 was unbalanced with an 81st percentile in Verbal and a 51st percentile in Quant. She said that INSEAD will take the higher of the verbal and quant scores, if you've taken the GMAT several times. Also, she told me to focus less on the IR or AWA because the goal is to have a good balance between Verbal and Quant. I think it's good to take the GMAT with your B-school in mind so you know your end goal. Also, GMAT Club has the GMAT Study Plans Section, which offers exactly what you need. You will need to customize which plan works for you but what they have there is a good start.

- I set and committed to daily study schedule. I studied for 2 hours on weekdays and 4-8 hours on weekends. This helped me remember the lessons that I learned. If you cannot commit to this, it is very unlikely that you will get the score that you want.

FOCUSED ON GETTING THE FUNDAMENTALS
- I relearned all the lessons and this time, I did not move on to the next section without truly absorbing the fundamentals. By this I mean diligently writing down which areas I didn't understand and looking for sample drills to work on. The GMAT Club forum tags and the GMAT Club test helped me so much with this. By far the best material that you can use is the Manhattan GMAT set but I'll elaborate on the materials later. Moreover, don't fall into the trap of understanding the basic idea of a lesson but not knowing how to apply it in a question. This was very apparent to me with absolute values and modulus so I really recommend answering GMAT questions before you say that you understand the topic. Don't expect to be able to answer the difficult questions if you don't understand the basic idea behind it.

ORGANIZED NOTES AND FREQUENTLY REVIEWED THEM
This time, I organized my notes and made sure that they were easy to navigate. I divided them into different subtopics, marked each lesson with small post-its, and I mainly wrote things I felt I would forget. It's a good habit to write down the things you learn so you not only internalize the lessons better, but also have a good reference in the future. I also read my entire notepad from time to time and in the morning of the exam to refresh my memory. It's a good habit especially when you're already in the more advanced part of your studies.

I KEPT A GMAT ERROR LOG AND WORKED ON MY WEAKNESSES
This is an interesting story because I tried most the recommended error logs posted here but none of them really worked for me. I found that the logs didn't help me see the bigger picture because I drowned in the rows and rows and rows of answers and it was very time-consuming to tally my common mistakes. Though some logs provide summaries, the nomenclature was very inconsistent. One log would say arithmetic, the other would say algebra, etc. I was confused or maybe was just lazy but I generally found them very cumbersome. The error log that really helped me (and seriously I'm not paid to do this) was the GMAT Club Test. All you have to do is answer questions and go to the "My Performance Tab". It will sort out your right and wrong answers for you and present you which question types you usually answer correctly or incorrectly in a very organized manner. You can even quickly revisit the questions by just clicking on the graphs. This might be hard to visualize now but I will elaborate on this tool later. But honestly, I feel that the GMAT Club test was a major tool for me. I urge you to just check it out and see if it works for you as well.

I used the "My Performance" in the GMAT Club test to zero in on my weak areas. I remember I spent almost 1 week on remainders because I couldn't get them right. In addition, my CAT review took as long as the test because I even checked my correct answers. There were several instances in which I learned faster and more elegant solutions than what I had initially used. You can't just blindly attack CATs and quizzes. You have to take 2 steps back and check why you made mistakes and make sure you don't do them again. I can't stress this enough. This is what I did in the latter part of my review until the official test day, though I occasionally took CATs in between drills to work on my test day stamina. Once I had my fundamentals covered and I repeated the cycle: practice, review mistakes, practice, review mistakes.

TOOK THE TEST WHEN I FELT PREPARED
When I scheduled my first GMAT, I had already studied for 3 months, on and off, and thought that I might as well take it since I can "never feel completely ready for a test." It's not that the saying is wrong, but looking back, I was really not ready because I did not prepare enough. I actually only scheduled my second GMAT 3 days before my test date and at that point, I had been studying for almost 8 months (3 and 4 months for first and second GMAT with a 1 month break in between). I felt tired, but also felt the consistency of studying. I felt that was already in a rhythm and because I committed to my plan, I knew that I had exhausted all I could and there was nothing else to do but take the test. So yes, you can never feel completely ready for a the GMAT, but you can feel that you have prepared enough.

Review of Materials:
1. Manhattan GMAT Set - by far the best to develop the fundamentals. Like what everyone says, the Number Theory and Sentence Correction are the standout books in the set. My only gripe with Manhattan is that the "Advanced" sections are at the end of the book, and not after the related chapter. For example, Chapter 1 is Algebra, then chapter 10 is Advanced Algebra. Didn't make any sense and the organization of my notes was screwed up because of that. I'm just nitpicking to be honest. Also, I find the Manhattan CATs tougher than the other tests but the answer explanations are very good.

2. GMAT Club Test - Man, I don't know what I would've done without it. It's a quiz bank, a hassle-free error log, and a CAT test all in one. As I said before, I was able to zero in and improve on my weaknesses because of the My Performance tab and the quizzes. I'll attach a screen shot of the My Performance Tab below and you'll see how it really organizes your test data. With it you can see the items that you guessed, best and worst topics, etc.

The answer explanations and strategies are mainly provided by Bunuel so you can expect that they are efficient and "elegant". The questions are harder than the average and it's funny because I didn't realize this at first. I was so frustrated but just kept on practicing with the GMAT Club Test because it was a convenient tool. One day, I realized that still had free tests from the Official GMAT Prep and Kaplan Prep so I decided to take them both. To my surprise, they seemed so easy because GMAT Club test questions taught me how to methodically attack 700 level problems. It's hard to explain but I continually looked for the "elegant" approach instead of just blindly computing for the answer. Moreover, daily practice with difficult questions gave me the confidence and belief in myself, especially after the surprise from the other tests.

One criticism is that some questions are actually too hard and it's not smart to devote too much time on questions that don't appear often. It's up to you to filter those questions out but you can also just choose to answer easier questions and then work your way to the more difficult ones. It also lacks a practice tool for the IR and AWA. But overall, this tool is just amazing and I highly highly highly recommend you guys to check it out.

3. OG 2013, and Verbal and Quant 2015 - They excellent sources of questions that you can expect in the real GMAT. They're the closest that you can get. However, don't use them as a reference because the explanations are very basic, especially in the answer key and the books don't offer strategies. I feel like the authors didn't even bother to make sure that the explanations and lessons are clear. Use the books as a question bank and to have an idea of the GMAT questions. I consider it necessary to own at least one OG, although the more, the merrier.

4. Kaplan GMAT 2015 - I find this book so-so. It offers a more comprehensive review of the lessons than the OG but doesn't have the depth of the Manhattan Set. It's not a fair comparison because complete Manhattan Set consists of 10 books while Kaplan is just a thick book. If you want a semi-quick shotgun review of all the lessons with some strategies, go for Kaplan. But if you're really serious, the Manhattan set is all you need. The free CATs that came with Kaplan offered good practice although I found them easier than the other tests.

5. AWA - Just use Chineseburned strategy. Hands down. I sometimes wonder if the people who check AWA notice that people are using the same sentence structure again and again.

Test Day Experience
CALM DOWN AND TAKE DEEP BREATHS
I was so much more calm than I was in the previous test. I guess that's something positive about being a 2nd timer. But initially, I struggled with Quant and made so many guesses. I panicked until around the 20th question then I took a pause and reminded myself to take deep breaths. This really worked for me so if you find yourself in the same situation, don't be afraid to take a breather. There's still hope! I was thrown off when I started getting extremely easy questions but I reminded myself that there were still 20 more and saw it as a stepping stone to get to the much harder ones. I calmed down and answered methodically, the same way I did during the practice. Still, I made a lot of guesses but smarter ones. I finished the quant section with mixed feelings - I didn't know if I bombed it because I had to guess so many times or did well because the questions were getting harder. Nonetheless, I just moved on to the verbal section.

Don't let your performance in the previous question or section affect you. Take baby steps and do your best per question. It's really true that you don't have to answer all the questions correctly. I honestly feel like I made 15+ errors but ended up getting a 49. I was so surprised.

MAKE SURE ALL OTHER FACTORS ARE COVERED
- Try to visit the place before the exam to have a feel of the test environment. The moderators were kind enough to show me the writing tools that I would use for the test. I also saw the need to bring a jacket so I wasn't freezing during the test, unlike the other takers.
- Leave early and try to arrive there 30 minutes ahead of time. I feel that any longer will just make you more tense but any shorter won't give you enough time to relax.
- Dress for the occasion. Dress comfortably but POWER DRESS. I feel like it motivated me and helped put me in a "YES I CAN!" mindset.
- Visualize the end goal. It's easy to drown in the GMAT but realize that it's not the be all and end all. Visualizing myself in the business school that I want helped calm me down and remind me that at the end of it all, I'm truly lucky to have the chance to study and apply to a business school. Getting a low score in the GMAT is not the end of the world. You can retake and get higher just like I did.

FINAL WORDS
Looking back, I made a lot mistakes that I could have avoided if I just committed myself more. I hope that by reading my experience, you guys don't make the same mistakes and get the score that you want in the first take. I never imagined that I would ever get a 710 in the GMAT but this just shows that it's beatable with the right mindset and habits. That being said, I want to say thank you again to the GMAT club for helping me reach achieve this. To the moderators (shoutout to Bunuel and BB) and the Individual posters, your comments and questions led me to the elegant solutions. I think I searched for 90% of all the questions that I answered to make sure that I had the most efficient solution. It was also comforting to know that I was equally lost in some of the difficult GMAT questions like the other users. To the unsung heroes behind the scenes who maintain and continuously improve the website, you made the GMAT more tolerable. To the people who shared their GMAT experience, you motivated me in times of stress. So big thanks to everyone and I hope you learned something from me. KUDOS!

If you have any suggestions for this post or questions, please feel free to ask and I'll be glad to answer them.

CHANGELOG:
- Added explanation to why I focused only on Quant
- Added AWA score
- Corrected minor grammatical errors and added new section on test preparedness